BOMB squad officers sealed off a town centre street after a container marked "explosive grenades" was found in a skip.

Experts from Liverpool rushed to Burnley police station after the grim discovery. The road outside the station was cordoned off while the suspect cylinder was investigated.

The officers found the canister had held grenades but was empty. It was taken away for disposal.

The metal cylinder was found by Gerald Gilroy who runs his own waste skip business.

"I'd just got to the waste station in Oxford Road and was sifting through the skip when I saw this canister with the explosive warning on the side," said Mr Gilroy, of Gawthorpe Road, Burnley."

"It was about eight inches in diameter and six inches deep and was sealed up. As soon as I saw the word explosive there was no way I was messing with it.

"I didn't want to just leave it, anyone could have picked it up, so I went down to the police station and asked them what to do.

"They cordoned off the street and the bomb disposal officers seemed to know straight away what it was.

"They split it open and it was like an egg carton inside, with shaped packaging to hold five grenades. It was Army issue and there was a date 1966 inside, although it looked quite new. It looked like someone was holding on to it as a souvenir.

"I've no idea where it came from. I'd made a number of pick-ups or someone could have walked past one of the skips and thrown it in."

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